Democrats shouldn’t fumble 2nd chance to approve vital trade deal

President Obama has been unable to win the support of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on free-trade authority.

Photo: Mandel Ngan, AFP / Getty Images

Welcome to the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. President, where your top priority of the moment — a trade package drawing in 12 nations and 40 percent of the global economy — is snubbed by local Democrats. They may have one last chance to get in line with your expansionist views.

The president’s visit is both timely and embarrassing. He’s swooping in for a speech to a gathering of big-city mayors and a familiar round of fundraising in a checkbook-friendly city.

Obama’s visit highlights an oddball political reality. He’s venturing into a region with a surging service and tech economy that links strongly with Asia, exactly the conditions for congressional support for the trade deal. This region is ground zero for advancing industries that can power the nation forward on a global scale.

But out-of-touch Democrats in Congress here and elsewhere along the West Coast oppose Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, now on life support in Congress.

These lawmakers, led by San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi, have a chance to reverse direction and get it right. The trade deal was voted down last week with Democrats deserting the president in fealty to labor and environmental objections. Few issues have divided Democrats as deeply or poorly served this country’s long-term economic interests.

That vote came with a twist that Republicans and the White House believe is fixable. Republicans are offering grudging support for an assistance bill that would aid workers thrown out of a job by the trade deal. That idea was rejected by Democrats earlier to undermine the treaty and the fast-track negotiating process the White House needs to cut a deal.

The new plan is a modified rerun. Obama and his new-found GOP allies are suggesting a legislative two-step: fast-track approval plus a sweetened jobs benefit package. Democrats in both the House and Senate remain suspicious that GOP forces will take away the job assistance, citing Republican grumbling that it’s a wasteful giveaway.

But the jobs package remains a creative and sensible response to opponents who believe that spurring global commerce will harm American workers. It’s exactly what Democrats have asked for in past trade talks.

The ins and outs of the deal are one thing, but the overall deal is far bigger. Obama wants to bind the globe’s most vibrant economic sector more closely to the U.S. through the sweeping agreement. It has the extra advantage of containing China, which isn’t part of the trade group. Turning down the deal would delight Beijing and widen its economic sway in the region.

Democrats should grab the latest deal that offers job benefits to the free trade package. It’s a political compromise that furthers a much greater end: a wider economy that will benefit this country and its trading allies.